


The Gods Were Never In Their Favour

by Twisted_Magic



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: "THE GODS ARE GOING TO KILL YOU!", Angst, Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter, Canon Relationships - Freeform, Feels, Fun right?, Greece, Humor, Hunger Games, IthinkthegodsaregoingtokillmeAphobia, Multi, Nightmares, Octavian kills his babies, Percy's incase you're wondering, Tartarus, The New Great Prophecy, The Prophecy of Seven, They are, beanie babies - Freeform, but who doesn't love Percabeth, corndog fireworks, do you get where I'm going with this, failed quest, fighting to the death, maniacs, may the odds be ever in your favour, put the tags together and you'll get the idea, sorry pretty boring for that right, the beanie babies not real babies, the gods were never in their favour, who wouldn't want to kill their own friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-18
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 10:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/848609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twisted_Magic/pseuds/Twisted_Magic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Prophecy of Seven sent the, well, seven to Greece where they defeated Gaea's army, but the Seven which was then the Five, "trapped" the gods in Tartarus. Oops. After many months of the gods battling for their lives, they're now back and guess what? They want revenge. As punishment, they'll take twelve demigods from Camp Half-Blood and twelve from Camp Jupiter and dump them into an arena to kill each other off because the gods are too lazy to kill them themselves. Percy's fatal flaw is caring too much about his friends, but how can he save them if it means himself dying? To make matters worse, guess who the chosen demigods are to go into the arena? </p><p>Percy must battle against the gods power as well as his friends to stay alive until he can save them all. Percy's IthinkthegodsaregoingtokillmeAphobia doesn't really help with his survival. Possibly feels. What can you expect when all your favourite characters are fighting to the death?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: The man on Chiron's toast tells me I'm going to die

Chapter One  
The man on Chiron's toast tells me I'm going to die

 

Percy was standing in the throne room of Olympus, surrounded by the gods. They were all leaning on their armrests in a critical matter, glaring down at him, including daddy-dearest Poseidon. I know that look: they’re wondering how best to kill me. But dad, you too? I know we don’t really have father-son chats, not even about the weather, but why would you want to kill me? Percy’s insides twinge with betrayal. He looked into his dad’s eyes pleadingly and cried desperately: “How can you do this?! I’m your SON! I’m the only child you’ve got, beside the Cyclopes and Pegasus…but that’s not the point!” Poseidon narrowed his eyes and leaned over his son, which was pretty impressive since he was, like, ten feet tall. “You could have saved the gods, but you let us be DESTROYED without a second GLANCE!” his snarl turned into a yell of rage. “Dad, you know I tried my hardest!” Percy tried to explain, but it came out as a whine. The gods all laughed, but it was a cold, unforgiving, taunting laughter that made Percy either want to curl up and sink into the ground, or punch their godly noses in. Before Percy could decide which one to go with, Zeus slammed his lightning bolt/staff onto the marble floor and commanded silence. The gods stopped their evil laughs and all turned their faces to stare into Percy’s eyes, grasping at his soul, pulling out his secret thoughts and fears, stirring up a way to kill him in which all of his fears were involved. Percy backed up from the sheer power of their gazes, but tripped on (can you believe it?) his untied shoelace and fell on his behind. Poseidon stood up as Percy landed and loomed over him, giving him an evil grimace. “Good bye, Perseus…” he whispered tauntingly and the last thing Percy saw was his own dad raise his trident in rage and everything went black.

Percy screamed and thrashed as he felt something tangled around him and his neck, strangling him. He fell off something onto a smooth wood floor, the strangling Something landing on top of him. Percy flung his arm up to slash the Something away, but it was pinning his arms to his sides. Alright, calm down or you’re never escape. Percy closed his eyes to slow his breathing and calm his racing heart, then opened his eyes slowly to look at the wooden floor. Wait, wooden? But the floor on Olympus is marble! Percy rubbed his cheek back and forth. Yep, definitely wood. He looked around him, waiting for his vision to clear. He had to blink several times before everything came back into focus, then when it did he sighed with enormous relief. He was in his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, not Olympus. But how did I get here? Percy just remembered that Something was supposed to be strangling him, so he rolled over to see that he was in a cocoon of…blankets. Percy let out another huge sigh. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. He let his head fall to the floor with a thump and closed his eyes to let that sink in. The door suddenly slammed, making Percy jump and look franticly over to see what was going on. “Percy!” Percy’s heart fluttered as his favorite person walked in: Annabeth. Annabeth was clutching her heart, like a ghost had jumped at her and she ran over to pull Percy into a hug. 

Percy grunted as she squeezed him. “Oh, I’m sorry…” she let go and helped Percy out of his prison, but then just hugged him again. Percy squeezed his eyes shut and let the smell of rose scented shampoo relax him. “What happened, Percy? I heard you scream, I thought Clarisse was murdering you.” She whispered into his ear. Percy laughed lightly. “Nah, Clarisse and me haven’t tried to kill each other for about a week. Isn’t that great? It’s a new record!” he joked. Annabeth laughed and pushed him away playfully, but then grew serious again and looked him in the eye. “Was it a nightmare?” Percy shrugged and rubbed his neck, which was sore from toppling onto the floor. “Maybe,” he shrugged again. “About what?” Annabeth demanded. Percy couldn’t help but laugh again, despite having just been killed by his dad. “If you’re so smart, Wise Girl, why don’t you guess?” Annabeth hugged her knees and leaned closer. “Gods threatening you again?” she whispered, although it was more a statement than a question. Percy had been having nightmares for months now about the gods killing him, ever since…Gaea. Percy started to shrug again, but stopped himself because his neck was still sore. He fiddled with his shirt hem instead, because he didn’t want to look into his girlfriend’s eyes. He swallowed before deciding to tell her, since it would do no good letting it eat away at him inside. 

“They wanted to kill me. All of them. Even dad.” He glanced up at Annabeth to see her reaction. Her grey eyes calculated his words and looked at him with sympathy. He looked down at his lap again before continuing, “They were…looking into my soul to…to figure out the best way to kill me. But Poseidon stood up and…and…did the work for them.” Percy finished, clutching his chest at where the trident would have hit him. Annabeth dragged him into another hug and whispered “sorry” into his ear. “It’s not like they’re really going to kill you though, right? They’ve had hundreds of chances to do that over, what, five years? Anyways, they’ve been gone for months now. It’s not like all the sudden they’re going to swoop down from Olympus and squash Camp Half-Blood, hmm?” Percy laughed. “Yeah, they wouldn’t dare!” 

 

*** 

 

“ATTENTION SEMI-DEMI-WHAT DO I EVEN CALL THESE GUYS? RIGHT, DEMIGODS, I AM HERE TO TELL THAT THE GODS ARE GOING TO KILL YOU!!!” a man yelled gleefully from the raised platform in the mess hall that the camp directors eat, where he had just suddenly APPEARED. Percy’s jaw slammed open in shock. This is NOT how my morning is supposed to go! First, I’m supposed to have a dream about the gods killing me; check. Second, I eat breakfast; haven’t quite got the chance to do that since a dude just landed on Chiron’s toast. Then Greek Mythology is allowed to mess up my life for the rest of the day anyway it wants to. Please, all I want is one quiet morning. Is that too much to ask for? The man whipped strawberry jam off his boot with the edge of the table before looking again gleefully at the stunned faces of the semigods. Then the screams came; a daughter of Demeter stood up like she wanted to say something but fainted headfirst into her cereal instead, a son of Apollo threw handfuls of taters all over the place for no apparent reason, then the whole Aphrodite cabin clutched their faces and screamed at the same time as if on cue, like they couldn’t believe that anyone would want to kill such a pretty face. The man on Chiron’s breakfast laughed somewhat manically and the look on his face clearly showed he was enjoying this. Percy whipped his head around to stare in disbelief at Annabeth at the Athenian table, who was trying desperately to calm down a son of Hecate who was spitting sparks all over. How can this be happening?! I dream about the gods killing me, then here comes along a man bringing ‘hey great news’ that our parents want to kill us! 

“SIIII-LEEEN-CEEE!” Chiron yelled while he jumped up onto the table along side the Man, looking at him with distaste for squashing his toast. “Wasted a perfectly good piece of bread…” he grumbled before turning to face the now stunned children in front of him, who were gaping at him for standing on the table. He smiled ever so slightly at their faces, “I knew that would get your attention. Now, if you could please explain to us a bit about what you mean by ‘the gods are going to kill you’” he directed at the Man. The Man grinned and leaned in close to the crowd like he as going to tell them a secret; “picture this:” he started mysteriously, “THE GODS ARE GOING TO KILL YOU!” he shouted with a silly grin twisting his face. He clapped his hands and laughed. The demigods stared at him with a mixture of horror, delayed shock, distaste, confusion and fear. “You should see your FACES!” the Man pointed at them and waggled his finger teasingly, but Chiron grabbed his arm and pulled it roughly back to his side. “Well, if you’re not going to be helpful and tell us what’s going on, could you at LEAST tell us who you are?” the Man grinned one last time tauntingly, then turned toward Chiron. “I’m the messenger, of course! To tell you you’re all going to DIE-” he didn’t get to finish before the sky rumbled and a bolt of lighting flashed down and zapped the Man, who screamed and disappeared. 

The campers sat there in shock. Although he had no idea what was going on or why and how the Man had just disappeared, Percy shakily got to his feet, then crossed the eating pavilion to stand next to Chiron. When he saw a look of shock and confusion on his face too, Percy turned to face the campers. He put on the best smile he could and rubbed his hands together to warm them, before spreading them out wide. “Well wasn’t that unexpected! Like, jeez, I never expected the gods to suddenly turn on us. Phew, never saw that coming!” he attempted a laughter, which a couple others caught on nervously, the ones who understood he was trying to calm everyone down until he could do anything. “So, as a senior counselor, I’m going to ask you to please all sit down and dude, we don’t need taters everywhere, so could you please stop doing that and you, seriously? Pulling out your hair is SO last year!” the demigods laughed. Great. Percy turned to look up at Chiron still on the table. Chiron was gaping at him, but he closed his mouth and jumped down with a clop of his hooves. He clapped Percy on the shoulder in thanks and reassured the campers everything was okay. Percy couldn’t help it, but his knees suddenly gave way and he slid to the floor, clutching his head as a sudden headache came crashing down. He squeezed his eyes shut. What’s going on? A jab of pain through his head made him dig his fingers into his hair, wincing. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and the warble of confused voices, but it sounded muffled. Another flash of pain made Percy shake, but it only lasted a minute before it disappeared. While the muffled voices grew more urgent, another voice came hissing into his head, much clearer than the others. 

“Dear Percy, you knew deep in your heart the gods would turn on you for what you did, how could they not? So why does THIS come as a shock for you?” Leave me alone! What are you doing in my head anyway? And who are, if you don’t mind me asking? The voice laughed softly, but it was confusing because the voice was neither a man’s or a woman’s voice, it was…both. It rolled smoothly around, shifting to a deep vibrating tone, but then at the same time it sounded like a melodious, beautiful woman’s voice. “Too answer all your questions, I am Here To Give You A Sneak-Peak of how that gods are going to kill you!” The Voice said it like a title, a name. Percy drove his fingernails into his skin, hoping it would chase the Voice away, but it just laughed evilly. “Here you go…” A sudden flash of motion blared through Percy’s mind. He was watching a boy, a teen like him, pin another boy to the ground somewhere in a forest. Percy’s heart felt like it had been dropped off a cliff. It was himself pinned to the ground. And the boy holding him down was Jason. 

Percy watched himself yell and slice Riptide through the air, but Jason controlled the winds to send it flying out of his hands. Jason seemed to have lost his own sword, because instead he was being a nice little friend and was trying to put his hands around Percy’s throat. Percy watched himself yell again and try to throw Jason off, but Jason let out a sob and fitted his hands over Percy’s neck. “We don’t have to kill each other, we can just hope we’ll die from cold or something, Jason. Why do you and me have to die at the hands of each other?” Percy barely managed to choke out as his face began to turn purple. Jason let out another sob, but didn’t let go. “I’m sorry Percy, I’m so sorry, but if I don’t do it now someone else will…” Jason choked out himself. Percy was forced to watch himself until he turned blue, but he couldn’t take it anymore. He forced himself to drag away from the vision planted in his head and he retched himself out of his thoughts and came up gasping. 

Chiron was leaning over Annabeth’s shoulder, while she was shaking Percy’s shoulders, calling his name. Percy stammered something like “I’m okay”, though he wasn’t sure. His head felt muddled and twisted, like it was tumbling around in a dryer. He stiffly untangled his fingers from his hair and stared at the blood on his fingernails. Annabeth took his hands gently and rubbed the blood off with her camp shirt. Percy just sat there, his eyes flitting nervously around at the demigods that had gathered around him and were looking at him with concern. A few awkward seconds passed. A little boy near the front shifted closer and opened his mouth to say something. “Soooo, are you like Harry Potter? Are you having a head scar attack?”  
Clarisse laughed at Percy. “Aw, is this too much for widdle Percy?” she asked in baby talk. Percy felt anger and embarrassment burning up inside him. He lurched to feet suddenly, making the campers nearest to him step back. I’m sick and tired of Clarisse teasing me all the time. She’s going to pay! Before he knew what he was doing, he was reaching for Clarisse’s neck. Annabeth screamed and grabbed Percy around the waist to stop him, but all Percy wanted to do was just make Clarisse see that it wasn’t okay to make himself look like a fool. Wait, WHAT AM I DOING!! Percy gasped and pulled back, hugging himself. I’m…I’m just like Jason. This…this is how the gods are going to kill us! They’re going to just sit back and let each other kill ourselves. They’re…they’re twisting our minds to think we hate each other, so we’ll finish the job for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading my fanfic, which I'm assuming you did since you're here at the bottom of the page! I apologize in advance for slow updates to this work, I'm writing two other stories at the same time right now, but I'll do my best to add chapters when I can! If you could please point out any spelling mistakes I made (if I did), I'd be very grateful.  
> Keep reading those Percy Jackson fanfics that are bursting with feels, hang in there until the House of Hades, or if you're a Hunger Games fan enjoy all the wonderful "fighting to the death" fanfics out there! Good day and may the gods be ever in your favour! :-)


	2. Chapter Two: The gods were hungry so they're punishing us?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Two: The gods were hungry so they're punishing us?
> 
> Chiron tells the campers about what really happened at the end of the Prophecy of Seven, what really made the writer have so many tags about failed quests. Zeus is kind of miffed at the Seven so he tells them how hungry he was and wants them to feel that too. You mean no dinner? Nah uh, worse than that. The gods are making hunger into a game.

Chapter Two:  
The gods were hungry so they're punishing us?

 

After Chiron settled everyone down and made sure everyone was sitting, he got Percy and Annabeth to sit next to him at his table. To keep an eye on me, no doubt. Annabeth insisted he tried drinking water, but Percy tried just as hard to convince her he was fine. Chiron cleared his throat. “Demigods of Camp Half-Blood, the events of this morning have been…interesting. I’m going to be honest and say I don’t understand what’s going on, but I do know one thing: the gods want revenge for…The Quest.” A hush fell over everyone as if a blanket had been dropped on them. They all knew about The Quest; the new great prophecy, the Prophecy of Seven. Of course, everyone had blamed the Seven for what happened for a very long time, but they got over it a while ago since they saw they had to stick together. After the Prophecy was fulfilled, it was clear it wasn’t over yet. They tried not to talk about it too much, but it’s kind of hard to cover up failing the biggest quest of all time. When new demigods came to Camp Half-Blood, they all tried to keep it a secret from them, but they all found out about it sooner or later. 

Chiron straightened himself and cleared his throat again. “Most of you know what happened earlier this year; the Prophecy of Seven told us that the Seven would fly to Greece to save the gods from Gaea’s forces. They…they reached Greece successfully, while Percy and Annabeth were in…you-know-where.” Percy struggled to keep his sudden shivers under control. He blinked a few times to chase away the horrifying images that were awakening again in his head. I-I can’t give in again to insanity. Chiron looked at Annabeth and Percy next to him to make sure it was okay to talk about Tartarus. Annabeth nodded silently. “They closed the Doors of Death successfully and stopped Gaea’s giant army before they destroyed Greece completely, but not before the battle between Gaea and gods. Of course, every giant they killed stayed in Tartarus, but only to meet Percy and Annabeth. They were…trapped in there. The Seven…the Seven forced the gods to break in and save them.” Percy felt a twinge of guilt. You don’t have to say they FORCED them to. Though I suppose that’s kind of what happened. Man, it’s all my fault we’re in this mess. 

“After they helped them kill the giant army and Gaea, they agreed to help them out of Tartarus. They got them out fine, but the giants were waiting for them, as well as Gaea.” Chiron swallowed nervously and looked up at the sky, as if in fear that another lightning bolt would come down to take him too. “The gods fought with Gaea for months, trapped because the Doors of Death were closed. Gaea overwhelmed the gods eventually. They…they were nearly killed.” The campers leaned forward, knowing this was a dangerous story to tell, but they hadn’t heard it all at once before. “The gods suffered for months before they finally managed to escape through the exit into the Underworld. Once they had returned to Olympus, they had been twisted with distrust at how their own children,” he looked at Percy, Annabeth, Piper and Leo apologetically before continuing, “had sent them into Tartarus as if to trap them there and seemly hadn’t lifted a finger to help them. Of course, they did everything they could to rescue them, but if the gods couldn’t escape themselves, how was the Seven going to rescue them? Eventually they had to return to Camp Half-Blood to convince the Romans not to attack and ask them to help, but it seemed as though the gods were sentenced to be trapped in the dark forever. Now, it’s obvious that the gods have returned and are very, very angry with us.” Chiron sighed. “So they’re going to punish all the demigods by killing us.”

The campers muttered and whispered to each other. I know they all blame us for what happened, like ‘why did Percy and Annabeth have to fall into Tartarus in the first place?’. No matter what they say now about ‘it’s fine’, I know deep down (or not so deep) they all still blame us. For a while they didn’t want to let it show they blamed us, because they wanted things to go back to normal, but now that the gods have returned and are claiming they want to kill us, I’m PRETTY sure they’re blaming us big time right now.  
“Oh, the gods aren’t going to kill you,” a girl’s voice piped up. Everyone turned to see who had said that. Rachel was standing calmly on the steps to the pavilion. She slowly gathered up the purple robes she was wearing (robes, nice touch) and patiently walked up to stand on the raised platform with Chiron. She turned to face the campers. “YOU’RE going to you.” Silence stretched over the scene. “Whhaaaa?” the tater maniac Apollo kid asked. Rachel looked serious despite the snickers from the nearby kids. “The gods are still going to kill you, just not by their hands. They’re going to make each of you kill each other. Percy knows what I’m talking about,” Percy’s face burned when everyone turned to focus on him. Annabeth looked at him with confusion, her grey eyes asking the silent question ‘why didn’t you tell me’. Percy stood up and cleared his throat. “Well, not exactly, but it’s-it’s a vision I saw when, you know, I went all Harry Potter style,” he started embarrassedly. “I-I heard a voice in my head-not Gaea’s!-” the crowd sighed with relief, “a voice telling me that the gods are, yes, going to kill us, then she gave me a…‘sneak-peek’ as it put it.” Percy looked down at his hands and took a deep breath before looking up at everyone again. “I saw Jason killing me.” They all gasped. “The-the gods aren’t going to kill us themselves, they-they’re going to, as Rachel said, make us kill each other. They’re going to-to turn us against each other somehow,” Percy was interrupted by a snort from Leo. Leo turned red himself when his cabin looked at him. “Well, I mean, they already kind of DID that, didn’t they? Like, the Romans were attacking us, totally not my fault by the way, they said that would tear us apart and it didn’t, did it? Am I right?” he looked around for agreements. Percy nodded slowly, “yes, but this is different. I mean in this very camp.” Leo’s hair sputtered into flames for a moment, making a few people snort and Leo ducked his head in embarrassment. 

Percy was stopped from saying more when a shadow crossed over the whole valley, making everyone gasp, followed by a crash of thunder that shook Percy to the bones. A blinding flash of lightning came down right into the center of the pavilion, turning everyone’s gasps into screams when they saw a giant silhouette ten feet tall loom up out of the spot where the lightning bolt had landed. The figure loomed up to their full height as the smoke cleared, revealing…Zeus.

A hush fell over the whole camp, while the air crackled with electricity and Percy had to take a step back from the immense power that was rolling off Zeus in waves. “DEMIGODS!” Zeus spat the word out like it was poison in his mouth. He raised his hand as if to throw something making all nearby campers duck, but he just swept his hand through the air and an image shimmered to life like an Iris Message, but this was much larger, so the everyone in the mess hall could see. Percy stared at it to find an image of the people of Camp Jupiter gathered for breakfast in their mess hall, just like Camp Half-Blood was. In the image Percy could see Reyna standing next to her chair, her hand on her sword. She looked like she was talking to someone who was making her angry, but she turned in shock to find US looking at HER in shock, through the image. Percy took a moment to realize that the person Reyna had been talking to was Jupiter. Jupiter was standing in the center of them as Zeus, his Greek form was standing right here. Aw man, this is just getting more confusing. Percy rubbed his temples and tried to make sense of this. It must be hard for Zeus to be Jupiter at the same time, didn’t Mr. D say they got splitting headaches from trying to be Greek and Roman? Zeus (and Jupiter in the image) both raised their hands for attention. 

“DEMIGODS OF THE TWO CAMPS!! THE MESSENGERS I SENT TO YOUR CAMPS HAVE BOTH BEEN INADEQUATE SO I, ZEUS AND JUPITER, HAVE COME TO BOTH YOUR CAMPS TO TELL YOU THE NEWS MYSELF!!” he boomed, his voice magnified with his double speaking from the image. “Something tells me this isn’t going to be good news,” Percy whispered to Annabeth. Zeus turned to look into Percy’s eyes, much like he did so many times in Percy’s dreams, with a terrible fire burning in his eyes. Percy thumped down onto his seat. “Oh great one,” Percy heard Octavian start in the image, “if I may ask, what fabulous news have you come to bring us, after such a long, er, silence?” Octavian kneeled down before Jupiter, his hands raised as if in a prayer. Jupiter regarded him in the same manner as he had Percy. Octavian stammered something and crawled underneath a table. Percy would have laughed, but he felt…afraid of Zeus. Usually he just got annoyed at the King of the Gods, but he actually felt terrified. Today my nightmares come true.

“DEMIGODS, AFTER YOUR IMMENSE FAILURE TO HELP US AS WE SO GENOROUSLY HELPED YOU, WE HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN OF DARKNESS AND ARE NOW GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!!!” Percy would have stood up to object right then and there, but his knees felt like jelly, so he didn’t want to risk falling flat on his face in front TWO camps. The King(s) of the Gods slammed his staff down for attention, although the whole valley was as still as stone. “WE GODS HAVE REACHED THE WONDERFUL AGREEMENT TO KILL YOU ALL AS WE NEARLY WERE IN TARTARUS!! AS PUNISHMENT FOR THIS, WE SHALL CONDEMN DEMIGODS TO KILL DEMIGODS!!! AS PUNISHMENT, YOU ALL SHALL FEEL WHAT WE FELT, THE HUNGER FOR LIFE, FOR REVENGE. HUNGER FOR MERCY, HUNGER TO KILL. AS PUNISHMENT, WE DECLARE THE GRAND MAKING OF,”

“THE HUNGER GAMES.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading my fanfic and going through two whole chapters of it! Yay! Can't be too bad, I hope. Maybe you actually enjoyed it! Sorry, this chapter was a bit shorter than the last one, BUT DO NOT FEAR! More chapters are to come soon, next chapter you get to see who the tributes are! Awesome!  
> Thanks for stopping by and may the gods be ever in your favour.


	3. Chapter Three: I get a tattoo and Octavian kills his beanie babies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Three: I get a tattoo and Octavian kills his beanie babies
> 
> Zeus/Jupiter reaps the tribute names out of a goblet (totally not the Goblet of Fire) then gives everyone free tattoos! Sweet right? Percy has another nightmare, defends his girlfriend and Conner tries to blow up his own arm.

Chapter Three: I get a tattoo and Octavian kills his beanie babies

Both camps sat in terror; unable to move in fear Jupiter/Zeus would kill them before these ‘Hunger Games’. I hate the name ‘Hunger Games’. It makes me think of someone thirsty for blood, like a vampire. I’m no vampire. I’ll never do these ‘Hunger Games’. Zeus laughed an evil booming laugh, much too like the one he gave Percy in his nightmare, that it again made Percy want to curl up, because punching his nose in was defiantly not an option now. Zeus (and Jupiter) clapped his (their) hands together so loud, it sounded like thunder clapping and continued his speech. “AS OF THIS MOMENT YOU ARE ALL BOUND TO COMPETE IN THESE HUNGER GAMES!!!” Darn it. “LET ME EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT: EACH CAMP SHALL GIVE TWELVE TRIBUTES!!! ONE CHILD FROM EACH OF THE MAIN CABINS, DOESN’T MATTER IF IT’S A BOY OR A GIRL AS LONG AS THE OTHER CAMP GIVES A TRIBUTE OF THE OPPOSITE GENDER, IF THE IS ONLY ONE BOY IN ONE CABIN,” Zeus turned to look at Percy, while Jupiter looked at Jason, “THE OTHER CAMP MUST PICK A TRIBUTE FROM ANOTHER CABIN!!! IN CAMP HALF-BLOOD’S CASE, THALIA SHALL TAKE THE PLACE AS THE TRIBUTE OF CABIN 1, CAMP JUPITER CAN GIVE…REYNA,” Reyna paled and had to sit down, “AS THE OPPOSITE GENDER OF PERCY!!!! THE OTHER TRIBUTES SHALL BE DECIDED NOW!!!” Zeus pulled out a giant stone goblet (the little boy from earlier could now be heard insisting that the goblet was the Goblet of Fire) and waved his lightning bolt over it, sending electricity strands to thread out in the goblet, dancing around. 

“FOR CABIN ONE OF CAMP HALF-BLOOD:” the lightning threads snaked out of the goblet and formed a name in the air. “THALIA GRACE!!” A sudden crack sounded and Thalia appeared on the empty table for Zeus. She spun around in a circle, raising her loaded bow in confusion, her eyes wondering how she got here. When she spotted her dad standing there, her cheeks blazed red with rage. “Dad?!” Thalia started toward him, her bow relaxed but she kept the arrow ready just in case. Zeus ignored her of course. “TRIBUTE OF CAMP JUPITER:” the goblet formed a name again. “JASON GRACE!!!” Jason in the image frowned, but didn’t protest; he knew that was coming, so there was no point in it. “FOR HADES:” No, not Nico! “NICO DI ANGELO!!” A shadow was thrown over a corner of the mess hall and Nico was tossed out. He grumbled and picked himself up, but didn’t seem surprised at all for him suddenly being victim to the Hunger Games. I’ll talk to you later. “TRIBUTE TO PLUTO: HAZEL LEVESQUE!!!” Nico turned even whiter than usual, if that was possible and choked something out that Percy couldn’t hear. “REYNA SHALL COMPETE IN THESE GAMES AS WELL LUCKY GIRL!!” Reyna nodded curtly and stood stiff but proud. You’ve got to admire her courage. “AS OF POSEIDON:” Percy knew this was coming, but it didn’t stop that dread weighing him down. “PERCY JACKSON!!!” Percy thought her felt a hand squeeze his reassuringly, but he was so tense he couldn’t move, just stare ahead. This is it. I was once told my fatal flaw was caring about my friends too much, I never saw that as a bad thing, but…how can I take care of my friends if it means giving up my own life? Percy didn’t feel so good; his muscles were clenching up, his chest felt heavy so that didn’t help his breathing to much, plus he was feeling kind of dizzy. He clutched the armchair for support, but his fingers felt too numb to feel it. He must have been pretty distracted from, you know, terror of being picked to be the murderer of his friends, because all the sudden Zeus was announcing the tribute for Hephaestus’s cabin; “LEO VALDEZ!!!” Leo gulped and immediately pulled out a handful of gears and screws from his belt and fiddled with them like crazy. “ARES AND MARS: CLARISSE LA RUE AND FRANK ZHANG!!!” Clarisse looked pleased to have the chance to fight people to the death, no rules. Who wouldn’t be, right? “HERMES: JANET WARNER FROM CAMP JUPITER AND OF THE HALF-BLOODS CONNER STOLL!!!” Travis sobbed and grabbed his twin’s arm, begging him to let him take his place, since they’re so alike, but Conner scolded him for saying that in public because they couldn’t use that plan now. 

“CHILDREN OF ATHENA:” No, they wouldn’t dare. No, no they wouldn’t DARE! They dared. “ANNABETH CHASE!!!” Percy didn’t hear who the tribute was for Camp Jupiter because his heart was to busy crying out in despair. As if in a dream, he kicked his chair out from under him and stomped over the table, not caring he was stepping on Chiron’s toast himself now and stalked up to Zeus, fury making his vision blurry, his head pounding as if horses were stamping over him (and trust me, he knows what that feels like). I don’t care if the gods blast me to bits right here on this marble floor, they are NOT SENDING ANNABETH INTO THE HUNGER GAMES! Percy thought he heard a yell of rage, maybe his own, as he lunged at Zeus. He felt more anger than he ever had around Ares; this was something else. Percy was not going to allow his girlfriend to be killed by ANYONE, let alone one of his own friends. Zeus simply disappeared and reappeared across the hall. “NO! I’M NOT LETTING YOU TOUCH HER!! SHE’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR STUPID GAMES!!!” Percy was literately spitting with rage. Both camps had gone completely silent with respect for Percy standing up to Zeus. No one had ever done this with both Zeus AND Jupiter close enough to blast him to ashes. Percy was trembling all over at the power of his anger, which kind of scared him. He stood there, yelling at Zeus random insults he remembered from his years at school and cussed like a horse. “Percy,” Annabeth whispered from his side. Percy was surprised; he hadn’t heard her footsteps. Annabeth pulled his face down, with a hand on either side, to look into her eyes. “I can’t let you die. I can’t.” Percy whispered. Annabeth smiled the smile she saved for Percy’s Seaweed Brain moments.  
“They’ll just kill me anyways, you know that. I’d rather be with you. Remember? It doesn’t matter where we are as long as we’re together.” Percy closed his eyes and nodded slowly. Annabeth leaned so close Percy could smell her breath. “Don’t you notice that Zeus is picking all the demigods who were part of the Prophecy of Seven? He wasn’t letting the goblet pick those tributes: the gods agreed that we should be punished since we had a hand in them getting trapped in Tartarus. This is our punishment. There’s no way out of it, not for me, or anyone.” I suppose she’s right. Percy nodded again and let Annabeth lead him back to his seat at the main table. 

Great. I humiliate my self twice in one morning. Zeus glowered at him and took up his station back in the middle of the pavilion, pulling up the goblet again. “MOVING ON!” Zeus boomed. “TRIBUTES OF APHRODITE:” Lets see if it’s true that they’re picking the Seven on purpose. “CAMP JUPITER, DANNY YOUNG!!! HALF-BLOOD, PIPER MCLEAN!!!” It’s official: the Seven are doomed. “No,” Jason ran as close to the image as he could without vaporizing it. He looked like he wanted to stick his hand through the image to reach Piper, but was afraid it would just make the image disappear. Piper was sitting at her table, pale faced, but sitting straight and keeping her face clean of emotion. At first Percy didn’t understand why she wasn’t looking at Jason, but he guessed it would just be too painful for her, knowing they would be enemies the next time they met. Of course, no one’s going to kill they’re friends on purpose, but what if the gods twist our minds into thinking we hate them, like they did when Clarisse was making fun of me? Percy fought to keep down the sick he felt rise in his throat. That would be a great date! Like, I’m just chilling with Annabeth and when I’m dropping her off back at her house we go all kablamo and kill each other! Percy was shaken out of his thoughts when Zeus cleared his throat and continued. He rambled off the Demeter and Dionysus tributes, the latter only had one camper in it, so it was kind of a bummer for Pollux. “AND FINALLY!! THE APOLLO CABIN!!” Octavian had come out from under the table and was leaning toward Jupiter as everyone leaned away from Zeus. “THE LAST TRIBUTES CONTRIBUTING!!” he grinned at the almost pun. “THE TRIBUTES ARE: GREEK SANDY MUSHLIN AND ROMAN…OCTAVIAN!!” 

Percy searched Octavian’s face. His face first flashed with horror, then pride, then sickness, but finished with glee. Probably because he can’t wait to get his gutting knife near me. Octavian bowed numerous times at Jupiter’s feet. “Thank you for this great honor, my lord!” Suck up. “I’m sure both camps will join me in thanking you for giving us the honor of dying by the gods’ hands!” Coward. Neither of the camps joined him. Octavian grinned at a sudden thought. “Please excuse me while I go slice the truth out of my Beanie-Babies!!” he squealed like a fangirl and skipped out of the hall, polishing his knife on his toga (Gods, when does he ever take that toga off?). May his beanie babies rest in peace.  
Both Zeus and Jupiter grumbled and cleared their throats. “NOW THAT THE TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN CHOSEN I SHALL TELL YOU WHERE YOU’LL BE FIGHTING TO THE DEATH!!! AN ARENA SHALL BE CLOSED OFF IN A SECRET LOCATION AND TERRAIN!!! IN ONE WEEK HERMES SHALL COME TO BRING YOU (LITERATLY) TO YOUR DEATHS!! DON’T EVEN TRY SUCICIDE BEFORE THE WEEK HAS ENDED BECAUSE NOW I SHALL PLACE TRACKERS ON ALL THE TRIBUTES SO THAT YOU DON’T GO RUNNING OFF ON ONE OF YOUR LITTLE QUESTS!!! ONCE IN THE ARENA YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO GET SUPPLIES BUT AFTER THAT THERE ARE NO RULES!!! IT’S JUST DEATH WAITING HAPPEN!!! HAVE A GOOD WEEK AND MAY THE GODS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!!!” Zeus laughed and snapped his fingers twice. Percy felt a sheering pain in his forearm, then Zeus vanished along with the image and Camp Half-Blood was left in silence. 

 

*** 

 

Percy lay in bed two days later, trying to get to sleep. He stuck his arm in a ray of moonlight that was pouring through the nearest window. With the faint light he could see the new markings on his left arm, sort of like the Camp Jupiter marks on his right. The marking was the tracker that Zeus was talking about, but it was probably Ares’s idea to have it as a tattoo. The marking showed a bloody sword with the word ‘hunger’ twisting around the handle in spidery writing. When Percy tilted his arm at the right angle, he could see the blade flash like light was reflecting off it. It’s great to have a free tattoo before I’m eighteen, like ‘sweet’, but a bloody sword? Not my first choice. All the tributes had them. Percy had watched over the past two days several attempts to take them off: Piper tried using a tattoo remover, Connor tried to blow off his arm with dynamite, Leo made some sort of complex machine to ‘laserize and burn the baby off’ as he had put, but all the plans failed because each time they tried, their tattoos zapped them like electricity and rode off their arm to destroy the tools they were using. Percy just left his as is, knowing nothing was going to get past the gods in the following week. They were in the gods’ world now. Nico attempted to shadow travel out of the camp but he just popped up in the woods instead so many times he just gave up. Thalia ran over the border line a few times but a force field seemed to have formed over the whole valley. I mean, we’ve got one of those already, but to keep others out, not us in. They were trapped in their own home. Percy risked using Annabeth’s secret cellphone to call his mum, Sally, but the phone exploded as he was dialing the number. The gods are grounding us. 

Percy tucked his arms in and rolled onto his side. He watched the wooden winds chimes Tyson had made for him twirl around on the ceiling. He imagined they were leaping out of the waves. He could almost smell the ocean and hear the seagulls cackling to each other. Percy’s eyes slowly drifted shut, weary from all the hardcore training he had been doing all day. Percy drifted into the dream world and opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by darkness. “Annabeth?” he whispered. But only a growl returned to him. Fear shot through his blood. No. This isn’t Tartarus. No. Please don’t let it be. It was. All at once, screams sounded from the depths of the never ending shadows: terrible screams off ghosts condemned to never ending darkness; monsters swimming in their anger for centuries that were eager to get out; and worst of all, Gaea yelling out her hatred for all to hear for all eternity. Percy wanted to run, but his legs just wouldn’t move. He was forced to stand there, being smothered by the anger and terror of souls long forgotten. Then out came the gods. “HOW COULD YOU TRAP US HERE?!” they all yelled as one. “It wasn’t our fault!” Percy insisted, but he was getting tired of trying to convince them. Poseidon stepped forward and the shadows bended around him to make him seem taller than ten feet. Twenty feet. Fifty feet. One hundred feet tall. He cocked his head and considered Percy with a slight smile playing on his lips. “I could just squash you now, but I think I have a better idea!!” the markings on Percy’s arm burned like, well, Tartarus, while his dad raised his trident and let out a battle cry as Piper, Jason, Grover, Frank, Leo, Hazel, Thalia, Clarisse and all his other friends, ending with Annabeth in the center, ran toward Percy and trampled him into the ground like he was monster dust and they yelled revenge and stabbed his remains into the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, fellow demigod tributes! Thanks for reading, more to come, I hope this is the right balance of humour and feels for you! Don't worry, more Octavian and Leo for ya in the arena. Yay! Please keep checking for updates if this story pleases you, keep reading fanfics and watch some action movies!  
> May the gods be ever in your favour :-)


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